Laker soccer splits weekend contests

September 3, 2012

The Iowa Lakes Community College men's team struggled in the monsoon like wind and rain on Friday night against MCC Blue River in Kansas City , Mo., losing 6-3.

"The playing conditions were very tough and the ball was hard to handle but in all honesty we looked like a team that didn't want to play and the Trailblazers did," said coach Ammon Bennett. "The game couldn't have started any worse for the Lakers when less than two minutes into the game starting keeper Richard Nolasco lost his position on the turf field and got confused by the lines and handled the ball just outside the 18 yard line which resulted in an indirect free kick and a goal and within the next 5 minutes we were down 3-0. We looked flat and out of sorts and the team had no sense of team play."

A few minutes later Blue River tacked on a fourth goal and for all intensive purposed the game seemed over.

"We fought hard and believe it or not we came all the way back and by half time we had managed to get the score to 4-3 but this was the best we could do," the coach said.

By games end MCC tacked on two more insurance goals for the final score.

"We just looked poor throughout the game and even though we played hard as individuals this kind of effort will never win a team game," Bennett said.

Milo Bruce-Burgess, Erick Guzman, and Ryan Murray all scored goals for the Lakers.

Lakers shut out Independence

The Laker men came back the next day against Independence Community College and played much better notching a 2-0 shutout.

"The performance was literally night and day when looking at how our team played," said Bennett. "We played better as a group, defended much better and our offensive movement was creative.

"My only complaint would be that we should have finished much better as we had several quality opportunities in front of the goal," he continued. "All things being considered both opponents were about the same talent wise it just goes to show you that teams beat individual play and as we all get on the same page and learn to trust each other our success will increase." Alex Tarin scored a great header off a corner kick just before half and Carlos Sanchez added an insurance goal in the second half.

The Lakers are off until today when they face in conference opponent North Iowa Area Community College at 4 p.m.